If you look at your life now versus how you imagined it would be, is it pretty much a mirror image or is it completely different? If you’re anything like me, it’s the complete opposite of how you planned it.

How I Thought It Would Be
When I was much younger, I imagined that I would be a career woman with several advanced degrees working in a big city for a large corporation. I visualized myself living in a modern loft – in a highrise – with a cat. I would be very driven and able to change the world with my influence and power.

How It Actually Is
My actual life is far from this. While I guess I am a career woman, I don’t really see myself that way. After receiving my bachelor’s degree, I knew I was finished with college. My dreams of grad school were crushed by the fact that I pushed myself too hard in my quest to achieve perfection – perfect grades and many academic honors took a toll on me, and I burned out. It literally took years before I could pick up a book and read it. In the midst of this burn out, I met a man and fell in love.

I should mention that I am a hopeless romantic at heart. I love weddings. I cry during sappy commercials. And I adore my man. My priorities of saving the world shifted into just snuggling with him and being grateful that we had found each other. We rearranged our lives so that we could be together all of the time – we created a company that allowed us to do that. And after 10 years of togetherness and bliss, I am still over-the-moon in love with him.

And while I still have dreams of saving the world, I’m doing my part in a much quieter, softer way than I thought I would. This is the way that feels right for me. It fits into my life better. I live a quiet life in a quiet house, and I love it.

I recently met someone who went down the path of academic and career achievements that I thought I would go down. She is amazing – inspirational – and brilliant.

And what I realized is that we are at very similar points in our lives now – we just went about getting here in very different ways.

Mapping it Out
Let’s imagine for a moment that before we were born, we mapped out our path for our time here on Earth. We listed all of the lessons that we wanted to learn while we were here. We wrote down what our life purpose would be. And what if we had a soul family that we made this contract with? What if we wanted to learn the same lessons at the same time? And then we were born into human bodies and we went about our human lives – most of the time not even consciously remembering the plans we had made. But our soul always remembers – and what if it has been guiding you toward your life purpose this entire time?

My dear friend is a member of my soul family. And while our external lives have been just about as different as they could be – our souls have been learning the same lessons at the same time. We have each gotten to right where we need to be – even though our choices led us here in very different ways.

We will always get where we need to go regardless of the choices we make.
Realizing this was so refreshing to me. Our divine plan trumps all else, which takes the pressure off of us when we’re worried about whether we are making the right choice at a certain time. We will always end up right where we are supposed to be when we are supposed to be there. Knowing this allows us to live our lives and release the fear and uncertainty that goes along with making each decision. Our soul always knows the way.

And this is a wonderfully safe feeling for me to have.

I hope it makes you feel better, too.